A wide variety of gaming devices are now available to gamers and to casino operators in computerized form, from slot machines to games that are traditionally played live such as poker and blackjack. These computerized games provide many benefits to the game owner and to the gambler, including greater reliability than can be achieved with a mechanical game or human dealer, more variety, sound, and animation in presentation of a game, and a lower overall cost of production and management.
Computerized video game systems must be designed with many of the same concerns as their mechanical and table game ancestors—they must be fair, they must provide sufficient feedback to the gamer to make the game fun to play, and they must meet a variety of gaming regulations to ensure that both the machine owner and gamer are honest and fairly treated in implementing the game. Further, they must provide a gaming experience that is at least as attractive as the older mechanical gaming machine experience to the gamer, to ensure success in a competitive gaming market.
Many computerized wagering game systems have a variety of sound and graphical elements designed to attract and keep a game player's attention, such as sound effects, music, and animation. These game presentation features often include a variety of music, sound effects, and voices presented to complement a video presentation of the wagering game on a display.
Wagering game players typically stand or sit on one side of a wagering game, and interact with the game such as by pushing buttons, pulling levers, and operating a touchscreen. The wagering game system in turn provides feedback to the game player via the display and one or more speakers. The sounds are typically used to indicate the status of a wagering game, such as to play reel spin sounds indicating the reels are spinning or playing a jackpot sound to alert the game player that a jackpot has been won. Some further embodiments use audio to enhance the theme of a wagering game, such as to provide reel spinning noises, frog noises, and water sounds in a fishing-themed wagering game.
But, such sounds can't be used to build suspense, such as where suspenseful sounds are played in movies, because it isn't known what the results of a particular play of a wagering game will be until after the play is initiated. The effects of building suspense and drawing out the surprise of a positive or exciting result are nonetheless desirable, to enhance the game playing experience and make the wagering game more engaging than competitive wagering games.
It is therefore desired to use audio to further enhance the gaming experience in a wagering game machine.